Just because someone else got an interview invite doesn’t mean your application has been passed over or rejected

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

I posted this over on the Baylor thread and felt it would be beneficial for the stress levels of everyone else who is constantly checking the school specifics or interview invite tracker:


“They (all schools) stratify applications. There will likely be a high MCAT pile stratified into GPA piles ordered by date, there will be a middle MCAT pile and a low MCAT pile with the same thing. There may be separate indicators that are automatically tagged on and assigned priority: URM, college athletics, military, IS/OOS, applying dual degree, undergrad affiliation etc etc.

Admissions algorithms are a lot more complex than we give them credit. 95% of holistic review is done by the algorithm. And that is how you get sorted.”


Your application is somewhere in those piles and it will be reviewed. We are just starting to get interview invites, the people getting them now are those that are in the piles which schools prioritize. Those deemed most competitive or assigned to a particular internal missions based group.

Your application is not their application so your own evaluation of your timing will not be based on anyone else. You will have a lot less stressful of a cycle if you use the school specifics for stress relief (mutual embracing of success, failure, waiting, support) not as a gauge for your own application.

Just relax, class of 2026 (2027 - 2032 for us dual degree folks). Your time will come.

And for the love of god, stop posting “Congrats! Stats? URM? OOS? Submit date? Ht/Wt? GME Hold price?” That doesn’t help you.

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[LizzyM]

Amen. Also consider that application readers are often faculty members with day jobs, a home life and other "stuff" going on. They are assigned a dashboard of applications and given 2 weeks to review them. Rinse and repeat. Most of us are going to do 2 or 3 per day, 7 days per week and get through our 40 assigned applications that way. Someone is going to be first and someone will be last and it may completely unpredictable. You may also have the bad luck of being assigned to the reviewer who is good but slow and who will be tardy through the entire cycle. It's not you ... it's them.

This is a long, slow process. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride to Mars. This is no SpaceX and you can't expect the experience to be over in 10 minutes.

 

[Gwynbleidd]

And for the love of god, stop posting “Congrats! Stats? URM? OOS? Submit date? Ht/Wt? GME Hold price?” That doesn’t help you.

You forgot social security number

 

[Goro]

In addition, patience is a virtue; the need for instant gratification is not.

 

[Fano]

I understand the point (and, truly, thanks for the info & advice) but there's absolutely nothing about this process that allows for relaxation.

 

[LizzyM]

I understand the point (and, truly, thanks for the info & advice) but there's absolutely nothing about this process that allows for relaxation.

You need to find ways to relax and recharge during this process and throughout med school and onward if you are to remain physically and emotionally healthy. Compartmentalize, shut the door on the process and move on to something relaxing and enjoyable before returning to admissions. Check email daily but not q 15 minutes. You can think of other things that will work for you but you need to make room in this process for periods of relaxation. Eight to twelve months is too long to spend on edge and in a high state of alert.

 

[Goro]

I understand the point (and, truly, thanks for the info & advice) but there's absolutely nothing about this process that allows for relaxation.

I know that this is going to trigger some sensitive souls here, but the best way to deal with this process is to consider yourself rejected until you have that accept email in your Inbox, and be working on Plan B accordingly.

 

[LizzyM]

Feeling for this generation.

 

[GreenDuck12]

I understand the point (and, truly, thanks for the info & advice) but there's absolutely nothing about this process that allows for relaxation.

Totally get where you’re coming from but it will be incredibly beneficial to develop strategies to manage stress and anxiety now - it only gets more challenging from here. There will always be something you are anxious about: exams, skills labs, step, rotations, letters, research, evaluations, honors, shelf exams, and let’s not forget - patients. The folks in my class who have performed well are the ones who can complete a task and move on to the next one without obsessing over it. The folks who are struggling are the ones who check to see if an exam grade has been posted 10 times before lunch.

Compartmentalizing is huge. Giving yourself one time a day when you’re going to check for status updates is helpful - once secondaries are in, try to narrow it down. At no point in this process will responding to an update immediately Vs. in a few days, change the outcome.

 

[KnightDoc]

Totally get where you’re coming from but it will be incredibly beneficial to develop strategies to manage stress and anxiety now - it only gets more challenging from here. There will always be something you are anxious about: exams, skills labs, step, rotations, letters, research, evaluations, honors, shelf exams, and let’s not forget - patients. The folks in my class who have performed well are the ones who can complete a task and move on to the next one without obsessing over it. The folks who are struggling are the ones who check to see if an exam grade has been posted 10 times before lunch.

Compartmentalizing is huge. Giving yourself one time a day when you’re going to check for status updates is helpful - once secondaries are in, try to narrow it down. At no point in this process will responding to an update immediately Vs. in a few days, change the outcome.

FWIW, keep in mind that you are responding to an uptight parent, not an uptight applicant. HIGHLY unlikely this advice is going to resonate!!!!

No judgment, but my observation over the past two years is that the parents who participate here tend to be way more invested that you would expect, and are absolutely not going to listen to anything contrary to what they already believe.

 

[GreenDuck12]

FWIW, keep in mind that you are responding to an uptight parent, not an uptight applicant. HIGHLY unlikely this advice is going to resonate!!!!

Ohhh… man, parents gotta chill…

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

FWIW, keep in mind that you are responding to an uptight parent, not an uptight applicant. HIGHLY unlikely this advice is going to resonate!!!!

No judgment, but my observation over the past two years is that the parents who participate here tend to be way more invested that you would expect, and are absolutely not going to listen to anything contrary to what they already believe.

Ohhh… man, parents gotta chill…

There’s absolutely nothing inherently stressful about this process, 99% of it is just waiting. Imagine just being stressed by the existence of time.

 

[KnightDoc]

There’s absolutely nothing inherently stressful about this process, 99% of it is just waiting. Imagine just being stressed by the existence of time.

I don't know if I would go that far!

@LizzyM's advice is very well taken, and no doubt the stress is largely self induced, but saying that there is nothing inherently stressful about preparing for something for literally years on end, and then being forced to wait for a result, largely in the dark, for up to a year, where the majority of applicants do not succeed, is just not true for all but the most blase among us.

As someone who has been searching/impatiently waiting for a missing secondary for a few weeks now, are you honestly saying you are not inherently stressed?

 

[Fano]

FWIW, keep in mind that you are responding to an uptight parent, not an uptight applicant. HIGHLY unlikely this advice is going to resonate!!!!

No judgment, but my observation over the past two years is that the parents who participate here tend to be way more invested that you would expect, and are absolutely not going to listen to anything contrary to what they already believe.

So now you're also an expert on parents? Why did I not see that coming?

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

I don't know if I would go that far!

@LizzyM's advice is very well taken, and no doubt the stress is largely self induced, but saying that there is nothing inherently stressful about preparing for something for literally years on end, and then being forced to wait for a result, largely in the dark, for up to a year, where the majority of applicants do not succeed, is just not true for all but the most blase among us.

It was a joke, my sunglassed friend

 

[KnightDoc]

It was a joke, my sunglassed friend

I totally missed it, and thought you were being serious!!!! We are totally in this together, and I have to admit, it's way more difficult to be rational when you are involved than when observing from the sidelines. You're beating the bushes looking for a secondary, and I'm staring at my e-mail all day waiting for an II that apparently isn't coming.

 

[Zuggelder]

FWIW, keep in mind that you are responding to an uptight parent, not an uptight applicant. HIGHLY unlikely this advice is going to resonate!!!!

No judgment, but my observation over the past two years is that the parents who participate here tend to be way more invested that you would expect, and are absolutely not going to listen to anything contrary to what they already believe.

So now you're also an expert on parents? Why did I not see that coming?

Uhh @Fano, you kinda just proved @KnightDoc's point...